


i'm myself, plain and simple

by wrenkos



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 21:02:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13373004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrenkos/pseuds/wrenkos
Summary: “There’s actually one person who I think you’ll all recognize,” she claps her hands together, and now she doesn’t even bother cosplaying as anyone else - because who else but her, the big bad mastermind, to deliver this line? “or, at least, one person who’ll definitely hit the nail on its head!”Tsumugi Shirogane has a last minute addition to the script.





	i'm myself, plain and simple

**Author's Note:**

> major ndrv3 spoilers. i'm going to stop putting 'ndrv3 spoilers'/'major ndrv3 spoilers' in the summary from now on since we've passed the 1 year japanese release anniversary!! 
> 
> this fic is a spiritual successor to [eighteen hundred and ninety six pieces of glass](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12909933) but you don't really have to read that to understand this one h a,, i recommend that you do, though

Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer, the mastermind and ringleader of the 53rd season, thinks while her cosplay talks.

It’s essentially the same as having a conversation with yourself while somebody else is talking to you, except that your thoughts are buzzing on the script, what to say the most for shock value, and views, but the others are talking to you about the show of Danganronpa.

Ah, at least at the moment she’s only Junko Enoshima, whom she adored and was the reason she got hooked onto the series in the first place (even if now she was somewhat tired and sure that the bags under her eyes were quite evident no matter how much makeup she put on), and she practically had her personality down to a t.

“If you’re not Junko Enoshima,” Saihara-kun shouts, (and she thinks, oh, how much character development he’s gone through, and almost feels a tiny bit envious because he is meant to be a fan favorite while she is meant to be plain, old, with her only selling point being the mastermind), “Then who the hell are you?!”

Swearing, hm? Well, since this was a show about murder, deaths and betrayals, and considering how the fanbase handled foul mouthed characters, she’s sure it’ll slide. It’s just a little surprising hearing it from Saihara’s mouth, is all.

An outfit switch - Hajime Hinata. Junko’s heels were getting a little uncomfortable, anyways. It’s a welcome change.

“I’m me. No one else."

That’s the truth. Plain and simple.

“What--?”

Well, that certainly takes everybody off guard because they’re all panicking. Or, at least, Saihara-kun, Kiibo-kun, and Yumeno-san are, but Harukawa-san just took a step back and that’s the most panicking she’ll do unless Momota-kun’s dead body isn’t going to show up and get stabbed repeatedly for shock effect.

(She thinks, that’ll really be despairing, but she knows that’s not the intended twist for Momota-kun, rather, they have his audition tape about killing everybody. Which is arguably worse, because he’s alive in the film and if they really did stab his body, it would be his dead body, so there’s that and she really shouldn’t be thinking about this.)

“Huh?” she asks, “You know who he is, don’t you? He was in the Jabberwock Island Killing Game.” and now she’s considering becoming Naegi - perhaps the first classic protagonist will jog their memories? (And she wishes she could be as optimistic as he is, because honestly she’s so, so tired and just wants this to be _over_ already. Onto the 54th season which she will likely mastermind yet again if she doesn’t die here, onto the 54th season with Kiibo again and somebody out of the remaining students to go through a living hell yet again.)

“I’m Hajime Hinata.”

“T-That’s not what we mean,” Himiko shouts, “What are you doing?!”

She’s now in her regular uniform, and places one hand on her cheek. “What am I doing? I’m just cosplaying.”

(It’s quite simple, actually. They’re all fiction, but oh, they don’t know that yet? Time to pull that twist yet again and watch them all fall into despair. Yet again. She’s tired.)

“Cosplaying?”

“Yeah,” she laughs, and now she’s Mahiru Koizumi, holding her camera up high, (she always liked her. A personal favorite of hers.) “this is just cosplay.”

She watches the faces of her ‘classmates’ fall into more confusion, and thinks to herself that soon enough they’ll be despairing.

* * *

“What season of…” Saihara’s voice falters, before he speaks again, “What season of Danganronpa w-we’re on…?”

She’s Naegi now, “Well, Saihara-kun? What do you think? You should be able to tell from the logo.”

“B-Be able to…” Saihara bites his lip, looking at the logo projected on a screen across from him, “Tell from the logo?”

It takes him a moment, and in those moments, there is silence. Let him think.

“Could this be the 53rd one?”

“Ding ding! Correct!” Cackles Monokuma, and internally she thinks, finally, a speaking break, “This is the 53rd season of Danganronpa! In other words, Danganronpa V3’s official name is Danganronpa 53!”

Ah, the faces are priceless. Monokuma really wanted to drop the bomb on this one, didn’t he?

“Starting with the Hopes Peak Academy arc in Danganronpa 1, 2, and then 3...the seasons just kept coming, and with it came more killing games! Until it transcended games and anime to become this, Ultimate Real Fiction! And now, we’re on the 53rd season of Danganronpa!”

(Internally, she thinks, a bunch of wires attached to your headset with all of them in pods. It’s not as nice as you would think.)

“Since this is the 53rd season, one would expect to see a multitude of characters…” she’s Sonia, and now she’s herself, “But you only have memories from the first two, so you wouldn’t recognize any - ah!”

It hits her.

Oh, her brain has just been struck with another amazing idea - it may be last minute, but it would still fit the script, and it would be absolutely despairing, wouldn’t it?

Because there’s one person, who they just haven’t read about, but actually know, isn't there?

She's tempted to start laughing at the very thought. 

“‘A-Ah’?” Yumeno-san echoes, and her voice is shaking (poor, poor Himiko. Meant to go through development only when two of her loved ones die.) “Y-You just...why did you…"

“There’s actually one person who I think you’ll all recognize,” she claps her hands together, and now she doesn’t even bother cosplaying as anyone else - because who else but her, the big bad mastermind, to deliver this line? “or, at least...one person who’ll definitely hit the nail on its head!”

Yes, one person. She knows him quite well - spent and survived the 52nd season with him, killed him in the 53rd...he also had (had? Likely had, since the season isn’t over yet) quite the fanbase.

“W-What are you talking about--”

“See, because this is fictional and I’m sure that’s quite the bombshell to drop, but I’m not sure if everything has set in yet...since none of you really _knew_ any of the characters from the first two installments, you see…”

“W-What,” Kiibo stutters, “Are you trying to…?”

She grins, and she wants to laugh to herself, “You don’t know? He’s right beside me!”

“B-Beside…you?”

“Oh, and not Shinguuji-kun,” she goes on, waving her hand, “because then I’d get cospox. Normally I’d get cospox from you all too, since you’re quite real in my head, but there’s one exception…I plainly just told you who it is, so…?”

“A-Ama--”

“Correct!”

She laughs, and laughs, and _laughs_ at their mutual faces of horror.

And she cosplays.

And now she's Amami now - not the 53rd season participant, but the 52nd. Because in her mind, her 52nd self is quite dead, really, and all that is left of her is her looks and a screaming, annoying voice at the back of her mind, so he is no longer ‘real’ anymore.

Rantaro Amami in the 52nd season is not real, and neither is her 52nd self’s relationship with him. The times they laughed and cried together is not real, anymore. It is the past, and her past self is fiction. It just plainly doesn’t exist outside of fiction anymore.

“I’m Rantaro Amami,” she says smoothly as she cosplays, because his voice was kind of charming that way, and it honestly gained him a lot of fans, “The Ultimate Adventurer. Nice to meet you. I figure this is... a shock, seeing me like this.”

Himiko lets out a shrill scream.

And she laughs.

It’s hideous, it’s ugly, its the type of laugh that makes every single one of them - including Maki, who one would think is unflinching - freeze and go silent, and it’s only her, Tsumugi Shirogane, as herself, laughing and laughing like it’s the best thing she’s ever seen in the world.

She thinks, oh, why didn’t she think of this sooner - thinks, that Rantaro Amami of the 52nd season is dead and gone and he came back but is dead again, and thinks it’s so damn ironic that the girl who stood beside him and supported him during every single trial is now the one as him and laughing at the fact that he’s dead, dead, dead.

It’s just so despairingly cruel that the girl whom he was paired up with the most, the one who was terrified of the mastermind of the 52nd season is now the mastermind of the 53rd season because the developers thought it’d be an excellent idea and wiped her brain completely clean and put in the personality of a plain girl who never stood out and who was the one who was hidden in plain sight all along.

It’s full of despair, isn't it?

It’s shock value at its finest.

At the back of her head all that remains of the 52nd season’s participant Tsumugi Shirogane thinks it’s disgusting.

She keeps on laughing, and nobody stops her.

Because she is no longer the Tsumugi Shirogane that they knew, and because she is no longer the Tsumugi Shirogane who lived in the past in the last season.

She is herself. Plain and simple.

**Author's Note:**

> ngl if this happened ingame i'd immediately die instantaneously. 
> 
> thank you for reading!!


End file.
